Hi there, Dr. Rob here, your biosafety advisor. Did you know that clothing serves as an important barrier that protects your skin, and helps prevent you from getting infected from a biohazard. Also, if contaminated, can easily be removed and cleaned.

So how does body protection help us? Body protection serves two purposes in protecting you from biohazards and infections. First it is a physical barrier to protect you from cuts, abrasions, punctures or other breaks of the skin. Remember, your skin is usually a good barrier to biohazards by itself, but if the skin is broken, pathogens may enter your body and start an infection. The second purpose is that when it gets contaminated, it can easily be disposed of or cleaned.

If you are working with biohazards and sharp objects such as knives, scalpels, razor blades, needles, or even animals that bite and scratch, then there is a risk of breaking the skin. In this case, you should chose body protection that is more cut and puncture resistant. This is most important for the hands and forearms, but can also apply to the torso and legs. There is a wide variety of cut or puncture-resistant clothing available on the market today to help protect you.

One of the main risks when working with biohazards is getting it on your clothes and bringing it home, potentially contaminating your family and friends. To prevent this, you should  wear some type of body protection over your normal clothes which can be removed. For example, you can wear a plastic or rubber apron, a light coat, sleeve covers, or maybe a hair net. Alternatively, if you don’t want to cover your normal clothing, just have an extra pair of clothes to change into.

So what kind of body protection should you wear?

Examples of body protection are coveralls, lab coats, nursing uniforms, aprons, hair nets, sleeve covers and work shoes, just to list a few.

Selection of body protection should mainly be based upon the type of hazard you’re interacting with.

For example, if you are working with animals and expect to get quite dirty, you might choose to wear coveralls. If you are working with a lot of biohazardous water you should choose a water-proof apron and boots. If you are working with sharp objects, like knives or animal claws, you will want to choose cut or puncture-resistant clothing. For routine work where there is a low chance of biological contamination a lab coat and or nursing uniform may be adequate.

Coveralls and lab coats are convient because they are worn over your normal clothes and can easily be cleaned or disposed of. While options like wearing a nursing uniform or second set of normal clothes requires a place where you can change.

No matter what kind of body protection you choose, remember it is most important to not bring it home because it could be contaminated. For example, if you’re a healthcare worker wearing a nursing uniform, you should change into your protective clothing at the workplace and leave it there to be cleaned, so you are not bringing the potential contamined clothing home.

To summarize, just remember that your body may get contaminated when working with biohazards. Body protection works to both protect your skin from being broken and is a layer that can be removed, cleaned, or disposed of. So if you’re in a situation where your skin might be damaged or are exposed to a biohazard, wear body protection so you can … Be safe, be biosafe.